Corner bumper



K Nov., 11 1924. 1,515,356

A. E. MOON CORNER vBUMPER Filed Nov. 24. 1920 UHU Patented Nov. il, i924.

ALFRED E. MOON, OF AKRON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE B. F. GOODRICH COMPANY, F NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

CORNER BUMPER.

Application filed November 24, 1920. Serial No. 426,327.

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED E. M ooN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Akron, in the county of Summit and State of Ghio, have invented a certain new and useful Corner Bumper, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to bumpers for preventing damage to walls and household articles in the movement of the latter about a room, and is particularly applicable to carpet sweepers, floor polishers and such contrivances intended to be moved rapidly over a floor and to pass close to baseboards, table l legs, etc. It has been common to use corner bumpers for such articles and to secure the same in place by means of a cord passing around the article and threaded through a tubular bumper at each corner, but such bumpers in manufacture have been given a permanent elbow form, the hole which runs lengthwise therethrough making a turn of approximately 90. Such permanent curve of the longitudinal aperture makes the manufacture of such bumpers diiiicult and expensive, a separate mold cavity and mandrel being required for each bumper, and the sharply-curved mandrel being diiicult to remove.

The main objects of my invention are to provide a corner bumper which can be more easily applied, will occupy less packing space in shipment and storage, and can be more rapidly and economically made.

0f the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a carpet sweeper provided with a set of my improved corner bumpers.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of the bumpers in its natural or unbent condition.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the same.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a blank v piece of rubber stock adapted to be placed in a mold to form a plurality of the bumpers.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the bottom section of a mold with an unsevered series of the bumpers therein and a mandrel in molding position.

Referring to the drawings:

10 is a rubber stock blank of straight tubular form having a cylindrical, longitudinal hole therethrough, its wall being thickened at diametrically opposite parts 11, 12, the exterior, cross-sectional form being somewhat elliptical. I prefer to form suchblanks bythe use of a tubing machine, cutting the tube to proper lengths such as that shown in Fig. 4.

13 is the bottom section of a mold adapted 4to carry out my invention, vsaid mold being formed with a molding cavity, occupied by an unsevered string or series of bumpers 14 in Fig. 5; with bearing surfaces 15 on each side of said molding cavity, of which only one is visible in Fig. 5; and with large overflow cavities 16, 16a outside of said bearing surfaces, 17 is a mandrel fitted' into end notches 18 in the moldsection ,13, which are adapted to hold it preferably in approximately a central position in the molding cavity. 19, 19, are dowel pins at the corners of the mold section adapted to register thetop mold section when placed thereon, and 20 is an opening lug on the mold section.

In the molding operation, the blank. 10, being suitably formed as stated, is mounted upon the mandrel 1'? and placed in the mold cavity with the protruding ends of the mandrel in the notches 18 of the mold section 13 and with one of its thickened walls 11, 12 adjacent the bottom of the mold cavity. The top mold section is then placedin position thereon and the usual molding and vulcanizing operation is performed. The overflow cavities 16, 16a are made large in order that blank-s having a considerable excess of stock may be used, the blanks thus not requiring to be weighed to size.

When the cure is completed the series of bumpers is removed from the mold and from the mandrel and thereafter cut apart crosswise at the points indicated by 21, 21, in Fig. 5, into a plurality of individual bumpers such as that shown in Fig. 2. However, I do not limit myself to the molding of an undivided string of the bumpers.

The form of mold is such that each bumper has the general form of a short tube with a circular, longitudinal aperture 30; alongitudinally and laterally rounded exterior face 22; parallel flat exterior faces 23, 23 adjacent thereto; flat exterior faces 24, 24 opposite the aforementioned rounded face 22, at the end regions of the tube, said faces 24, 24 slightly diverging from the longitudinal aperture 30 toward the ends of the tube as shown clearly in Fig. 3. The wall between the longitudinal aperture 80' and each of the attachment faces 24 is thus of increasing thickness toward the ends of the bumper, so

the resiliency that the pull of the retaining cord will have a strong component in such direction as holdL the ends of the bumper firmly against the sweeper, or such other object as it may be attached to. 25, 25 are wedge-shaped notches extending laterally part way across the bumper from its flat side, forming` a semiarticulated structure with a middle and two end sections A, B, B. Each of these notches hasapproximately equal sides and an angle of nearly C. rlhey cut into and extend about half way across the longitudinal aperture 30, toward the curved face 22. Be tween said notches, and opposite to the curved face, the wall of the tube is relatively thick and is externally formed with al central longitudinal lug 26 havingv a plane face parallel with the longitudinal aperture 30 and flanked by segment-shaped recesses having concave arcuate walls 2?, 27.

ln placing the bumpers in position on the carpet sweeper they are bent to a curved form fitting the corners of the sweeper, the bending` being facilitated by the presence of the wedge-shaped notches 25, 25, the converging faces of each notch substantially abutting each otl er when the bumper has been bent to position, as shown at 28, Q8 of Fig. l.

rlt'he bumpers are secured in place upon the sweeper by the cord 29 encircling the carpet sweeper and threaded through the longitudinal aperture or channel 30 of each bumper, of the lug 26, embracing` the corners of the sweeper, assisting to leep the cord 29 taut.

Owing to the fact that the bumper in its natural condition is substantially straight, as shown'in Fig. 3, it is easily strung on the cord and may also be packed in quantities with very little waste space.

rlhe longitudinal channel obviously may imanes l/Yarious modifications may be made. For er; mple l do not wholly limit myself to usingv a perfectly straight mandrel., Also, while l prefer to forni the bumper with the end faces 25", 25a of the middle section il... parallel and at right angles to the longitudinal aperture 3f), this may be varied.

l claim:

l. A. longitudinally channeled rubber bumper having t'vo substantially lshaped recesses extending part way across the bumper and into its channel and diiff'idiiig` its inner half into a middle section and two end sections adapted to assume a closed form when the bumper is bent around a cerner.

2. ll. rubber bumper formed with a channel adapted to seat a retaining` coro, said bumper being` adapted to lit around a corner of its mounting, and the wall between its attachment face and its channel increasingl in thickness from its middle toward its ends.

3. A rubber bumper formed with a longitudinal aperture therethrough, a longitudinally, and laterally rounded outer face, attachment faces opposite to said rounded face and diverging from said aperture towards the ends of said bumper. two wede'e-shaped notches between attach-:nent races, said notches extending substantially half way across said longitudinal aperture and having` their adjacent sides at right angles thereto, and a lug between said notches.

ln witness whereof l have hereunto set my hand this 18th day of November, 19.20.

ALFRED E. MGON. 

